GWADAR OIL REFINERY

Gwadar is said to be the crown jewel of China’s $60 billion investment in its Belt and Road Initiative projects in Pakistan which is located in the southwest part of Balochistan province. Since this project is considered to be a game changer for the entire region, especially Pakistan. A lot of countries are eager to be a part of this project. One of those is Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan’s oil demand is increasing with every passing day which as of this moment cannot be achieved by the existing five oil refineries. These refineries can merely satisfy half of its annual demands. Which then makes the government spends more than $16 billion on importing petroleum products. After the meeting scheduled between PM Imran Khan and Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS), a MOU was signed in which it was decided that Saudi Arabia will spend 10 billion US dollars to build an oil refinery in Gwadar which will be ready at the start of 2020. Besides the fact that this refinery would produce 300,000 barrels of oil per day, which would cut down the cost of oil import. It will also create a lot of job opportunities for young generation in this sector. This is one of the positive initiatives taken by our government and we should hope that there would be more such announcements in the upcoming future.